Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page 171 / / The Apache Indians / Ingstad [First Page] [171], (1) Lines: 0 to 32 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [171], (1) 14 Prisoners from the Wilderness In previous chapters I mentioned that I wanted to locate the Indians who in recent years had been captured during encounters with the mountain Apaches. By talking with them I hoped to gather information that, together with my own experiences, might give me an idea of the life and history of these people. I headed east through the Sierra Madre and ﬁnally ended up in the small American Mormon settlement of Garcia, high up on a mountain slope facing the Chihuahua plains. Somewhere around here, the Apache woman Lupe supposedly lived. In Garcia I met John Becroft, an older Mormon who told me many a tale about the wild ones. He ﬁrst told me the story of Apache Kid, once the most notorious renegade Indian in the Southwest and northern Mexico. His fate had been a matter of speculation, but now I was getting the facts. It turned out that up until the turn of the century, Apache Kid was the leader of the mountain Apaches but died ﬁghting in the Sierra Madre. Furthermore, I was told that Lupe was his daughter. A few words about Apache Kid are therefore relevant whendiscussingthecapturedIndiansandthebandthatstillstruggles for survival in the Sierra Madre. Apache Kid was a six-foot fellow, smart, adept, and hard as a rock. In the 1880s, he was stationed as an Indian scout at San Carlos and led American troops to the Sierra Madre during the pursuit of Geronimo . He was reputed as being especially sharp and was promoted to sergeant of the scouts. However, he and a few other Indians caused a small ruckus in San Carlos during a drunken spree. It all ended with a well-known white man, Al Sieber, who was the leader of the scouts, getting wounded. The troublemakers were arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison in 1889. They were handcuffed and the sheriff Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page 172 / / The Apache Indians / Ingstad 172 Prisoners from the Wilderness [172], (2) Lines: 32 to 40 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [172], (2) and two other white men drove off with them. On the way, the Indians jumped the guards, killed two, and seriously wounded the third. They then ﬂed into the mountains. From then on Apache Kid was a constantly pursued renegade. His permanent hiding place was presumed to be in the Sierra Madre, but little was known about how he moved about there. However, his constant raids in northern Arizona were well known. There his hostilities evolved and grew until Apache Kid was considered the most dangerous man in the territory. He had no scruples, and if he saw there was an advantage to murder, he would spare neither whites nor Indians. His weakness was women, and time and again he rode to San Carlos, where he would capture a girl and bring her back with him to the Sierra Madre. When he got tired of the girl, he would either kill her or send her back. Then he would take off again in search of another. During his life as a renegade, Apache Kid revealed a remarkably cold-blooded, sly streak. He would roam as a “lone wolf” in Arizona where the enemy was most prevalent and indiscriminately kill them. Occasionally he would casually walk into a tent in San Carlos, shoot down the Indian who lived there, and kidnap his wife. His victims probably numbered close to a hundred. He was like the plague and his name spelled fear. He was constantly pursued, and a high price was put on his head in the Southwest as well as in northern Mexico, but he was never captured. This was what people generally used to know about Apache Kid. Now close sources tell me that this was the man who led the Apaches in the Sierra Madre. The attacks and raids that he and his people carried out in Mexico were at least as many as those he committed alone in Arizona. He often roamed in the vicinity of the Mormon farms, stealing and being a constant threat. In the early 1890s he attacked the Thompson family, killing a woman and a child. This happened in Cave Valley, not far from Garcia. In 1899, the Mormons Martin Harris and Tom Allen lived with their families in the...

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